SolarCity Raises $305 Million in Financing and Launches Services in Austin, Texas

Image courtesy of SolarCity.

SolarCity announced that it is expanding its service and operations in Texas by making its solar service available to homeowners in Austin for the first time. Customers in Austin can now go solar for as little as $50 per month, with design, installation, financing, and monitoring included. SolarCity is actively searching for locations for a new operations center—its fifth in the state.

The expansion is due in part to SolarCity’s solar loan program, launched earlier this summer. SolarCity’s loan can allow many customers to immediately pay less for their electricity generated by solar energy systems each month than they previously paid for their electricity bills, and be eligible for thousands in additional dollars from tax credits and other incentives. The company has leveraged its installation volume—SolarCity installed more residential solar in 2015 than the next 50 competitors combined—to negotiate extremely favorable terms on behalf of its customers.

SolarCity Corp.also announced that it has raised $305 million in a new financing arrangement. A private investment fund provided an equity investment in a portfolio of residential, commercial and industrial solar projects. The transaction also included a fully amortizing, 18-year loan that was syndicated to five high-quality institutional investors.

The syndication of a long-dated, fully-amortizing loan is believed to represent a ‘first of its kind’ for distributed solar assets., creating another financing tool for SolarCity. The loan was rated investment grade by a leading credit rating agency, and the financing is non-recourse to SolarCity.

SolarCity monetizes its underlying cash flows in cash equity transactions, but retains ownership of the assets and continues to service the customers. SolarCity held $5.2 billion in solar energy system assets on its balance sheet at the end of its most recently reported quarter on June 30. Those assets are contracted to create $3.1 billion in future payments on a net present value (NPV) basis1, and SolarCity expects to continue to execute additional transactions in the future with high quality investors to monetize its contracted cashflows